FAMILY CENTRE MAKES A GAME OF DRUG-PROOFING KIDS

Andrews Street Kids Learning Healthy Habits

For the preschoolers at Andrews Street Family Centre it may just seem
like fun and games, but little do they know that the latest activity
to arrive in their classroom is creating a group of "drug-proofed"
kids.

My Amazing Body and the Body Safety Game are two board games created
by Jennifer Hagedorn, the centre's drug strategy co-ordinator.

Their purpose is to educate young children about how their bodies work
internally, and to provide a basic understanding that certain things
are healthy and others are unhealthy.

Ultimately, Hagedorn hopes the games will serve as a foundation for
the kids for when they are old enough to learn about drug and alcohol
abuse.

"You can say it'll kill your liver, but if people don't know what a
liver is, it's not very effective teaching," Hagedorn said after the
games launched last week.

To play My Amazing Body, teachers ask the kids to identify, for
example, which part of the body makes blood pump, and the students
then attach a Velcro piece to the body on the game board.

As the players move around the board for the Body Safety Game, they
select green cards to indicate healthy choices and red cards to
indicate dangers. Each card details a certain activity and the effect
it has on the body, such as taking too many vitamins making you sick.

"They're very much into it, very excited. They really get animated
when they play the games," said Hagedorn.

Pam Krasniuk, a teacher at the preschool, says the different learning
method has been popular among the students.

"It gives them a hands-on activity," she said, "instead of me standing
in front of the class and telling them this stuff. They're learning a
lot more about their bodies now, and having fun at the same time."

Krasniuk says the games have succeeded in making the kids understand
the basic functions of various internal organs.

It's important to educate children in the William Whyte community
about the dangers of using certain substances at an early age, says
Hagedorn, because so many of them are exposed to drugs.

"It's a huge problem in William Whyte," she said. "All of the families
that come to Andrews Street are exposed to drugs, whether it's
themselves or a close family member."

Hagedorn is looking for financial backing to mass produce the games
and make them affordable for other agencies and preschools.

Other parts of the centre's drug strategy include brochures about
different substances written at a Grade 6 level, and information for
adults that is written at a level people can understand.

"The problem is that most of the information out there is in a format
that isn't accessible to community members," said Hagedorn.

In her two years in charge of the centre's drug strategy, she says the
level of awareness in the community has grown.

"Are we going to get everyone off drugs? No. But I think that the
first step in any drug strategy program has to be public education and
information. Without knowing, you can't address the bigger concerns."